If the original version of a movie were still available and accessible, I wouldn't mind if its copyright holders created a new, bowdlerized, "palatable" version that was available along with the original. However, that's not what tends to happen. The heirs of old cultural products often make them unavailable in their original form, depriving modern audiences of the original work. This is a side effect of copyright law which I consider to be a detestable, culture-destroying bug.
I'm glad that no one can censor ancient works that are now under public domain. No one can force us to only read less-scandalous versions of Greek mythology or Shakespeare. But most works made over the last century are unfortunately held hostage to excessively long copyright terms, making them vulnerable to extinction when there is a cultural generational change and the new generation decides to disfigure them or wipe them out. In this way we lose access to cultural artifacts that show us what people thought at the time, for better or worse. Sometimes we even lose access to certain ideas that were better that current ones. Societal progress is not necessarily monotonic.
I'm not saying that I approve of all the values present in old works of art. But I nonetheless want to be able to see, hear, or read such works in their original, unvarnished form. I don't want condescending, contemporary censors to look down on me and assume I won't be able to tell what's problematic in old works or will absorb and embrace values that have turned out to be wrong.
I'm glad that no one can censor ancient works that are now under public domain. No one can force us to only read less-scandalous versions of Greek mythology or Shakespeare. But most works made over the last century are unfortunately held hostage to excessively long copyright terms, making them vulnerable to extinction when there is a cultural generational change and the new generation decides to disfigure them or wipe them out. In this way we lose access to cultural artifacts that show us what people thought at the time, for better or worse. Sometimes we even lose access to certain ideas that were better that current ones. Societal progress is not necessarily monotonic.
I'm not saying that I approve of all the values present in old works of art. But I nonetheless want to be able to see, hear, or read such works in their original, unvarnished form. I don't want condescending, contemporary censors to look down on me and assume I won't be able to tell what's problematic in old works or will absorb and embrace values that have turned out to be wrong.